Sunday, October 05, 2008

Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Moving to France was certainly a matter of counting the cost, as well as staying in France...and staying in France again. A thousand and one factors bounce around in your mind like a pinball machine, setting off all kinds of bells and whistles. This summer, the decision to board the plane and return to the land of our dreams (or land of our exile, depending on our mood) was anything but cut-and-dried. We talked, we prayed, we made an elaborate mind-map that covered the entire dining room table at my parent's house to brainstorm the pros and cons. Finally, it just came down to the fact that we had two tickets in our name on the 4th of September, 2008 to fly from Minneapolis St. Paul airport to Charles de Gaulle Paris.

Well, in some sense. But it's also a matter of weaving these beautiful everydays into a larger, more purposeful story. And although that's mainly the job of the Author and Editor of our faith, we evidently have a role to play. As the man in the story above, we sit down, make the best estimations that we can, lay foundations, and (if we are wise) finish a tower or two in our lifetime. Our question for the moment is simply: where to build? The awkward truth is that the longings for professional fulfillment - particularly for the man of the house - appear to be pulling us back to the geographical location we just left behind. Hmm. What to do?